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BAKE: mushroom quiche with whole grain blend crust

I was craving quiche!
Combined with the fact that I was suffering from jet lag and was awake at 4am earlier this week, I decided to bake a quiche. Rather than follow a recipe, I used a couple (Cook’s Illustrated and Sehr Gut Backen) as guidelines for the crust.

To try to maintain some flakiness, I started by making just a 1/4 of the flour for the crust with white whole wheat. The crust was mixed by hand with water added slowly from a bowl of ice water until the crust held together. (Interestingly, Sehr Gut Backen adds an egg instead of water.) I then shaped the crust into a small disc and refrigerated it. After a few minutes, I rolled the crust until it fit the quiche pan. The dough did get too soft so I threw it into the freezer once while rolling it out. The crust was pre-baked at 375 degrees with the edge of the crust covered.

The red onion was cooked with oil and then the mushrooms with a slice of butter added at the end. Only the broccoli stems were cooked with the mushrooms and then the crowns were added uncooked to the egg mixture. Broccoli was added because I wanted something green and I used milk because there was no cream.

The egg mixture was whipped with a fork, the vegetables added, and then the Gruyere was grated into the egg mixture. Before putting the filling into crust, a splash of sparkling water was added for good measure. I don’t know if it really works, but according to my MIL in Germany it helps make the mixture lighter. The filling was then topped with freshly grated Gruyere and sprinkled with some pine nuts. The quiche continued to bake at 375 degrees.

Results / Notes
The mixture was too thin in comparison to the crust. On the next effort, I would add more veggies and maybe a couple more eggs.

In the future, try a quinoa crust and a potato crust and a filling of leeks with red pepper and some cheese. Also try substituting Earth Balance for butter.